The hair holding device, or hair clip as it is popularly known, is perhaps the most prevalent of the hair holding/decorating/styling devices. Hinged, spring-biased devices for use in holding human hair are known in the art. Devices of this kind have been used for many years, and an early example is described in Eicher, U.S. Pat. No. 2,201,719. Such devices typically comprise a pair of opposed, hingedly connected members each including hair gripping and handle portions. The gripping portions are biased into a closed or gripping position by a torsion spring that exerts a closing force on the handle portions of the members. To deploy the device, the user squeezes the finger-pressable handle portions to overcome the biasing force of the spring and thereby separates the hair gripping portions. While maintaining the squeezing force, the user places the hair gripping portions on opposite sides of a desired quantity of hair to be held by the device. The user then releases the handle portions and the torsion spring urges the hair gripping portions into contact with a lock or shock of gathered hair.
In addition to the hair holding device described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,201,719, several U.S. patents propose hair holding devices either having bodies that are either too rigid to effectively hold hair or possess biasing springs, whether concealed or exposed, that may be aesthetically undesirable or otherwise unacceptable to many users. These include: Hart, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,520,201; Chen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,740; Yasuda, U.S. Pat. No. 5,787,905; Lee, U.S. Pat. No. 5,803,096; Potut, U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,482; Murphy et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,815; Yang, U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,377; Shu, U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,184; Newlin, U.S. Pat. No. 6,186,151; Strawn, U.S. Pat. No. 6,325,074; Potut, U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,307; Bolito, U.S. Pat. No. 6,357,452; Shyu, U.S. Pat. No. 6,408,859 and Potut, U.S. Pat. No. 6,619,296.
The aforementioned hair holding devices suffer from one or more of the following disadvantages. They may have bodies that are too rigid to hold hair effectively and may therefore be incapable of optimally conforming to the contours of bunched hair in order to hold hair securely. As a result, they tend to become easily dislodged from the position they were intended to be placed about the user's hair. Further, if provided with biasing springs, whether exposed or concealed, they are not particularly aesthetically pleasing. In addition, if exposed, the springs tend to snag and damage the user's hair, as well as the user's fingers, when the user attempts to dislodge the device. Additionally, to the detriment of the service life of the device, the spring is often the first component of the device to fail. A spring also adds unwanted weight and volume to the device, and, due to its metal composition, is a comparatively expensive component. Additionally, from the standpoint of manufacturing, a spring adds complexity and cost to the assembly process.
Others have sought to improve the form and function of the hair holding device by supplanting the spring with alternative biasing means or by obviating the spring through innovative design. Patents issued for inventions of this type include: Mao, U.S. Pat. No. 6,035,863; Lloyd, U.S. Pat. No. 6,142,159 and Horman, U.S. Pat. No. 6,311,699.
Still others have proposed the use of hair holding devices involving the use of elastic bands in conjunction with rigid or flexible body members. Examples of such devices may be found in Takashima, U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,765 and Burkhart, U.S. Pat. No. 1,533,380.
The device of Takashima utilizes a pair of pivotally connected body members as a means for delivering and applying to the hair an elastic band for securing the hair. The rigid body members do not themselves possess any hair gripping portions. And, the elastic band does not bias the body members into a closed position. To the contrary, the elastic band biases the body members into an open position and the user must overcome that biasing force in order to close the device and place the band around a lock or shock of hair.
The Burkhart device is an arcuate hair comb and barrette combination. The device includes a unitary, planar, arch-shaped, hair comb formed from resilient material that includes no hinge. The comb is secured in the hair, in part, by elastic strands. The teeth of the comb penetrate a user's hair but the comb has no hair gripping portions. All of the hair containment function is performed by the elastic strands which cover only a small area of the contained mass of hair. The result is a device that can be operated in essentially only one way, i.e., it can be used to contain thick masses of bunched or folded hair but it cannot be used to effectively hold a single gathered lock or shock of hair such as a ponytail. That is, the Burkhart device would flatten the single gathered lock or shock of hair to an extent where the intended styling effect would be compromised and/or the hair comb would fall from the user's hair.
An advantage exists therefore for a versatile hair holding device which improves upon conventional hair holding devices by providing the first and second body members of the devices with elastomeric means for biasing the body members into a closed position and for conforming to gathered strands of a user's hair when the hair gripping portions come into contact with gathered strands of a user's hair.